The Hindu : 5 held for selling fake driving licences

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Nov 13, 2003

Southern States

Southern States - Tamil Nadu-Chennai

5 held for selling fake driving licences

By Our Staff Reporter

CHENNAI NOV. 12. Five persons, who allegedly prepared fake driving licences and sold them to hundreds of unsuspecting applicants at Regional Transport Offices in the city, have been arrested.

Arumbakkam police on Wednesday seized seals and equipment that the gang used to make the licences - barely distinguishable from the real ones - over the last five years.

The fraud came to light when a car driver, Mohan Kumar, applied to the Tiruvanmiyur RTO for upgrading his licence so that he could drive buses and lorries. Officials at the RTO told him that the licence was counterfeit. Mohan Kumar then complained to the police that the licence he had received for Rs.500 from a man loitering outside the RTO was a fake. He had been driving around the city for a year with this licence. Acting on Mohan Kumar's information, police arrested Prabhu, Balaraman, Gunasekaran, Kothandaraman and Sridhar.

Police said the gang lured applicants by promising to get them licences easily. They took pictures of the applicants on a digital camera and delivered the `licence' to them a few hours later. The applicants never knew that they had been duped.

The police said the gang had issued licences to applicants in the name of the RTOs of Madurai, Tiruvallur, Kancheepuram and Salem districts. The accused men did not even remember how many licences they had forged.

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5 held for selling fake driving licences